The Necromancer will be available as a paid character pack for Diablo 3.

Some good news and some bad news for Diablo fans from BlizzCon 2016's opening ceremony. The good news? We're getting some new Diablo 3 content! The bad news? It's not a fully-fledged expansion pack, and rather a paid "character pack," that includes the Necromancer class, and some free content that includes a recreation of the original Diablo map in the D3 engine!

The "Rise of the Necromancer Pack" will include the male and female Necromancer class, a pet, two new character slots, and two new stash tabs. along with a portrait frame, pennant, banner shape, and sigil. It will be released in the second half of 2017 for an as of yet undisclosed price. Check out the Necromancers in action below:

As for the "Anniversary Dungeon" (the original Diablo dungeon built in the D3 engine) it will be a free event included in "The Darkening of Tristram" patch for free. It will be on PTR next week, and live in January. Completing the dungeon will reward you with a unique legendary gem: The Soulstone. Check out the map below:

Finally, Blizzard also gave us a bit more information on what to expect in the future for Diablo 3. Two new zones: The Shrouded Moors and the Temple of the Firstborn, will be added, alongside "Challenge Rift" - a new type of rift that strips players of all gear and paragon levels.

Couldn't they, y'know, add D1 to B.net and patch it for modern systems as a celebration of its 20th anniversary? Instead of making a thrown together dungeon made out of existing assets with a garbage filter?

Gee, I sure can't wait to play D1 in D3's awful artstyle and no atmosphere! Oh, but it has a shitty effect on top that makes it look pixelated and the colors are slightly saturated. How faithful.

That Necro is the most blatant content from a cancelled expansion pack I've seen in a while. "Character Packs" in Diablo, the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm sure most people would've wanted and willing to pay for the full expansion, rather than fluffed up leftovers that will probably be overpriced. And it isn't even coming anytime soon, why even announce something relatively so menial so much in advance? Reaper of Souls came out sooner after its announcement than this!

So... that's neat and all, but... no new expansion pack? Fuckin', christ, it's been nearly 3 years since Reaper of Souls, as fun as the necromancer might be it's gonna need a little more... you know, content to be enticing. Doing the same seasonal grind but with an army of skeletons instead is not exactly the most appealing thought to making me open my wallet here.

Hawki:Hmm, what's more entertaining? The patch, or the lamentations of players who are appalled that they have to pay for something in a game that's had free content given out since Reaper of Souls?

Well, anyway, can't complain myself.

This really should've been an expansion. It's been two years since the last one, and Diablo really is due, especially after the ending of RoS' campaign.

People aren't pissed that they have to pay for it. They're pissed because they were (rightfully) expecting more from Blizzard on the Diablo front.

Few points:

-The material that was originally intended for the second expansion has been released for free over the past two years.

-"Expecting more" is down to personal levels of expectation, so if one overhypes themself for something, then it's their burden. Now, it was certainly reasonable to expect something for Diablo in this case, given it's the series's 20th anniversary, and, well, the anniversary was acknowledged, and forms the basis of upcoming content.

-Considering the volume of content (three zones, one of which is effectively a D1 remake, plus a new class), how exactly is Diablo lacking in regards to the other franchises here? Off the top of my head:

-StarCraft: 1 commander, 2 maps

-Heroes of the Storm: 2 heroes, 1 brawl

-Hearthstone: Adventure pack

-Overwatch: 1 hero, 2 maps

-World of Warcraft: ...hell of a lot of stuff, can't sumarize it

I admit I'm not really the person to talk about personal investment in Diablo (I've never been as invested as I have in, say, StarCraft), but at least from my reckoning, it's getting the lion's share of content, and apart from the necromancer, it's all free.

Edit: As for the RoS cliffhanger, I can sympathize there as well. Technically the story has continued (Sescheron, Greyhollow Island), and the necromancer trailer actually establishes that the Balance is broken (which was hinted at ages ago thanks to Malthael's actions), and that Sanctuary has become even more of a shithole since RoS), but then again, the Diablo series has always ended with cliffhangers in every game bar D3 vanilla, and usually those cliffhangers are resolved across games. We do know that a Diablo game is being worked on. D4, maybe? I dunno, won't speculate. But at the least, I don't think the game can be said to suffer from a lack of post-RoS content.

Hawki:Hmm, what's more entertaining? The patch, or the lamentations of players who are appalled that they have to pay for something in a game that's had free content given out since Reaper of Souls?

Well, anyway, can't complain myself.

This really should've been an expansion. It's been two years since the last one, and Diablo really is due, especially after the ending of RoS' campaign.

People aren't pissed that they have to pay for it. They're pissed because they were (rightfully) expecting more from Blizzard on the Diablo front.

Few points:

-The material that was originally intended for the second expansion has been released for free over the past two years.

-"Expecting more" is down to personal levels of expectation, so if one overhypes themself for something, then it's their burden. Now, it was certainly reasonable to expect something for Diablo in this case, given it's the series's 20th anniversary, and, well, the anniversary was acknowledged, and forms the basis of upcoming content.

-Considering the volume of content (three zones, one of which is effectively a D1 remake, plus a new class), how exactly is Diablo lacking in regards to the other franchises here? Off the top of my head:

-StarCraft: 1 commander, 2 maps

-Heroes of the Storm: 2 heroes, 1 brawl

-Hearthstone: Adventure pack

-Overwatch: 1 hero, 2 maps

-World of Warcraft: ...hell of a lot of stuff, can't sumarize it

I admit I'm not really the person to talk about personal investment in Diablo (I've never been as invested as I have in, say, StarCraft), but at least from my reckoning, it's getting the lion's share of content, and apart from the necromancer, it's all free.

Edit: As for the RoS cliffhanger, I can sympathize there as well. Technically the story has continued (Sescheron, Greyhollow Island), and the necromancer trailer actually establishes that the Balance is broken (which was hinted at ages ago thanks to Malthael's actions), and that Sanctuary has become even more of a shithole since RoS), but then again, the Diablo series has always ended with cliffhangers in every game bar D3 vanilla, and usually those cliffhangers are resolved across games. We do know that a Diablo game is being worked on. D4, maybe? I dunno, won't speculate. But at the least, I don't think the game can be said to suffer from a lack of post-RoS content.

On top of that, Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard actually forced the Diablo team to patch in all the content they were making for the cancelled "King of the North" expansion (Secheron, Greyhollow) for free because he realized how botched the launch of Diablo 3 was and this decision "was about winning back the hearts and minds of people who were disappointed with the original release."[1].

Would I have liked Diablo 4? Totally, but considering that the Necromancer pack would have been the first real payment I've made for that game since I got it and it'll most likely be for less then a Monthly Stimpack in Heroes of the Storm, I'm not too salty.

MC1980:Couldn't they, y'know, add D1 to B.net and patch it for modern systems as a celebration of its 20th anniversary? Instead of making a thrown together dungeon made out of existing assets with a garbage filter?

Gee, I sure can't wait to play D1 in D3's awful artstyle and no atmosphere! Oh, but it has a shitty effect on top that makes it look pixelated and the colors are slightly saturated. How faithful.

That Necro is the most blatant content from a cancelled expansion pack I've seen in a while. "Character Packs" in Diablo, the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm sure most people would've wanted and willing to pay for the full expansion, rather than fluffed up leftovers that will probably be overpriced. And it isn't even coming anytime soon, why even announce something relatively so menial so much in advance? Reaper of Souls came out sooner after its announcement than this!

God, this event was horrible for Diablo.

Considering that all the content for the game since RoS has been for free strictly because of the fact Blizzard realized they royally fucked up, Necro is actually the only thing they are charging for.Hell, even the Diablo 1 Dungeon is free and part of a larger content patch that's also for free.I get it, it's not Diablo 4 but really, You'd swear Blizzard was murdering your pets or something.

Edit: As for the RoS cliffhanger, I can sympathize there as well. Technically the story has continued (Sescheron, Greyhollow Island), and the necromancer trailer actually establishes that the Balance is broken (which was hinted at ages ago thanks to Malthael's actions), and that Sanctuary has become even more of a shithole since RoS), but then again, the Diablo series has always ended with cliffhangers in every game bar D3 vanilla, and usually those cliffhangers are resolved across games. We do know that a Diablo game is being worked on. D4, maybe? I dunno, won't speculate. But at the least, I don't think the game can be said to suffer from a lack of post-RoS content.

I don't remember there being anything story related in Sescheron or Greyhollow Island, just new levels and enemies. Even the audio you get from notes is just barbarian lore, nothing expanding the story.

It will really depend on the price they'll charge for the class. If it'll be 15 or 20 $/€ (yes, Blizzard charges the same most of the time regardless of value), it will be disappointing to me.

As for the maps they released for free, imo, they feel like if they were made with such a low budget that it would have been unjustified to charge anything more than .50 for any of them. But I'm talking about the areas only, modi-wise like those loot dungeons and rifts, etc. they did a really generous effort for free!

It's not that I want to come across as ungrateful, but I'd rather pay 40 bucks for another pack like RoS than having watered-down content released every year or so (not talking about the modi!). I'm really a story+atmosphere player to whom gameplay is as important or slightly less. And I enjoyed both of these very much in RoS, not that much in D3.

But still, it's better than not getting anything for 10 years and then hoping that they won't botch it, like say D3. Still, I'd prefer to pay a rather high price up-front than getting crumbs for free. But crumbs, when good, are still like MN9 - better than nothing.

Edit: As for the RoS cliffhanger, I can sympathize there as well. Technically the story has continued (Sescheron, Greyhollow Island), and the necromancer trailer actually establishes that the Balance is broken (which was hinted at ages ago thanks to Malthael's actions), and that Sanctuary has become even more of a shithole since RoS), but then again, the Diablo series has always ended with cliffhangers in every game bar D3 vanilla, and usually those cliffhangers are resolved across games. We do know that a Diablo game is being worked on. D4, maybe? I dunno, won't speculate. But at the least, I don't think the game can be said to suffer from a lack of post-RoS content.

I don't remember there being anything story related in Sescheron or Greyhollow Island, just new levels and enemies. Even the audio you get from notes is just barbarian lore, nothing expanding the story.

Not explicitly, but the impression I got is that the events take place after RoS, that Adventure Mode is quasi-in-universe. That after Malthael, the Nephalem more or less does their own thing within Sanctuary, which would include visiting Sescheron and Greyhollow. At the least, Kulle's ghost can't arrive before he actually dies (again) within Act II.

MC1980:Couldn't they, y'know, add D1 to B.net and patch it for modern systems as a celebration of its 20th anniversary? Instead of making a thrown together dungeon made out of existing assets with a garbage filter?

Gee, I sure can't wait to play D1 in D3's awful artstyle and no atmosphere! Oh, but it has a shitty effect on top that makes it look pixelated and the colors are slightly saturated. How faithful.

That Necro is the most blatant content from a cancelled expansion pack I've seen in a while. "Character Packs" in Diablo, the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm sure most people would've wanted and willing to pay for the full expansion, rather than fluffed up leftovers that will probably be overpriced. And it isn't even coming anytime soon, why even announce something relatively so menial so much in advance? Reaper of Souls came out sooner after its announcement than this!

God, this event was horrible for Diablo.

Considering that all the content for the game since RoS has been for free strictly because of the fact Blizzard realized they royally fucked up, Necro is actually the only thing they are charging for.Hell, even the Diablo 1 Dungeon is free and part of a larger content patch that's also for free.I get it, it's not Diablo 4 but really, You'd swear Blizzard was murdering your pets or something.

Uhm, did you mean to respond to me? 'Cus the most I've been giving out about the price is the fact that it will probably be overpriced for what it is, and a proper paid expansion would have been better.

Also, are we STILL ragging about the artstyle? Even now? :/

They didn't fix it to not be shit now did they? And I was referring to the D1 rift where their idea of the old artstyle is a shitty pixel filter and saturated colors. Sorry that that part of the game is still bad, I guess?

Hawki:Hmm, what's more entertaining? The patch, or the lamentations of players who are appalled that they have to pay for something in a game that's had free content given out since Reaper of Souls?

Well, anyway, can't complain myself.

This really should've been an expansion. It's been two years since the last one, and Diablo really is due, especially after the ending of RoS' campaign.

People aren't pissed that they have to pay for it. They're pissed because they were (rightfully) expecting more from Blizzard on the Diablo front.

Let's be honest. People aren't angry that Blizzard didn't release an expansion. They're angry that they didn't bundle up all of the content, charge them for it, and label it as "an expansion". It's counter intuitive, but people are only getting upset because it doesn't feel as if they're getting an expansion, even though they basically have.

On principle I won't buy it. Blizzard has focused too much on DLC and paid content for my taste, in the case of Overwatch in a really scummy and disrespectful way (not being able to use in-game funds for event skins and the random nature of the loot boxes).

@Kibeth41 Considering the content in question is maybe 1/8th of the last expansion, nah. And I was generous enough to include the updates leading up to this too, not just the things to come. To say that a few short areas, some patches and a new character compares to a (proper expansion) package like Reaper of Souls is disingenuous to the point of being a lie.

What people are actually upset about is that they are getting scraps of the worthwhile content they are used to and would be willing to pay for. And that there's no way in hell that it won't be overpriced compared to an expansion pack. RoS cost 40, and best case scenario, the new character will 'only' cost 8-10 bucks, god forbid it might very well cost 15. A 1/4th of the price for 1/10th of the content. Even a dummy can tell this is ludicrous.

Meh. I'm kind of over Diablo III now. Adding a new character isn't enough to get me to come back I'm afraid. Full expansion, or more of these little side missions thrown in with the new character? That would do it--just like Diablo II did, or the Crusader with Reaper of Souls. But all on his own? Just not feeling the wow factor enough.

Let's be honest. People aren't angry that Blizzard didn't release an expansion. They're angry that they didn't bundle up all of the content, charge them for it, and label it as "an expansion". It's counter intuitive, but people are only getting upset because it doesn't feel as if they're getting an expansion, even though they basically have.

Y'know, I'm inclined to agree. I remember the character packs for Borderlands, how they cost $10-15 dollars, depending on where you lived, alongside paid DLC for short missions. I don't remember anyone throwing a tizz about that (actually, I feel Gearbox gets way too much rap - was Colonial Marines really that bad to somehow taint everything it puts out? Granted, I actually liked the game, but...)

It's not a perfect analogy, since we don't know how much the necromancer will cost, but I've got a feeling that the stream of free content D3 has received has become like candy. Keep feeding a child candy for years on end, then watch him become a teenager, when he's expected to use his own money to start paying for the candy, and cue the temper tantrum. Then again, from what I've seen of the Diablo fanbase, that does appear to describe them well, wanting to constantly receive more free content, while also claiming victim status in regards to not getting as much attention as the other franchises. In fact, I think D3 is the only Blizzard game that's received nothing BUT free content up until now (well, there is Overwatch, but even that has cosmetic microtransactions).

Not saying that there's no reason to complain - Overwatch uses a randomized loot system, HotS's skin prices are absurd, and the StarCraft war chest system is iffy. But complaining about having to pay for a new class...yeah, if you want to rail against DLC practices, I think there's far more egregious examples out there that what are mostly cosmetic choices.

So 3 years with no hint of an expansion pack, and now there's a 'character pack.' Seems forced, like they had to cancel an expansion they were working on for some reason and are rushing this character out so that players will FEEL like their game is getting support. I mean, the blatantly teased stuff at the end of Reaper of Souls is obviously expansion worthy, but maybe they've decided that we need to wait another ten years for that shit to get wrapped up in Diablo 4 or something. I know that they have been putting out a lot of free content for the game, but there is no way they don't know that fans are looking for a new expansion, or at least the promise of one.

Diablo is the only Blizzard game that I play, and I can't really say I even play it much at all anymore. A full expansion probably would have brought me back to it for another year or so, but one character? I'll probably get bored again inside of a month and I'm sure the character pack will be upwards of around 20 bucks since it comes with other stuff.

Sheo_Dagana:So 3 years with no hint of an expansion pack, and now there's a 'character pack.' Seems forced, like they had to cancel an expansion they were working on for some reason and are rushing this character out so that players will FEEL like their game is getting support.

Or maybe, it's that instead of charging players for a full expansion, they released the same content in smaller patches, and only charged players for a character pack instead.

Let's be honest. People aren't angry that Blizzard didn't release an expansion. They're angry that they didn't bundle up all of the content, charge them for it, and label it as "an expansion". It's counter intuitive, but people are only getting upset because it doesn't feel as if they're getting an expansion, even though they basically have.

Y'know, I'm inclined to agree. I remember the character packs for Borderlands, how they cost $10-15 dollars, depending on where you lived, alongside paid DLC for short missions. I don't remember anyone throwing a tizz about that (actually, I feel Gearbox gets way too much rap - was Colonial Marines really that bad to somehow taint everything it puts out? Granted, I actually liked the game, but...)

It's not a perfect analogy, since we don't know how much the necromancer will cost, but I've got a feeling that the stream of free content D3 has received has become like candy. Keep feeding a child candy for years on end, then watch him become a teenager, when he's expected to use his own money to start paying for the candy, and cue the temper tantrum. Then again, from what I've seen of the Diablo fanbase, that does appear to describe them well, wanting to constantly receive more free content, while also claiming victim status in regards to not getting as much attention as the other franchises. In fact, I think D3 is the only Blizzard game that's received nothing BUT free content up until now (well, there is Overwatch, but even that has cosmetic microtransactions).

Not saying that there's no reason to complain - Overwatch uses a randomized loot system, HotS's skin prices are absurd, and the StarCraft war chest system is iffy. But complaining about having to pay for a new class...yeah, if you want to rail against DLC practices, I think there's far more egregious examples out there that what are mostly cosmetic choices.

Personally, it's the lack of major story content that's the biggest issue for me and the 'No DLC' thing - even all the free content they've released (which I don't begrudge them for, it's rare for a AAA dev to do something like that) has just been... well, a couple of new areas that *occasionally* have bounties in them and some new difficulty levels to try and mitigate the ludicrous amounts of power creep going on.

It's like... I hit level 70 on my main character a few days after Reaper of Souls hit. Over two and a half years later, I'm still level 70. The most I ever see of the all-of-two new zones they added is the occasional rift floor or when I have to grab Kanai's cube at the start of a season, that's it. To use your analogy, it is all candy... but there's only so much candy I can eat before I want a little meat in my diet. Something with story, something with substance. Something that shakes up the status quo, makes me sit down and grind out some levels or explore the game world, not just hang around in town spamming Greater Rifts all day. Shit, at least something that answers the cliff-hanger at the end of RoS.

Like, I'm still going to get the Necromancer (I've been a whore for Blizzard shit since Orcs and Humans), but as said in my original post... yeah, a little extra content wouldn't hurt. Hell, I'll be honest, they could stop all the free updates to focus on a big RoS-style Expansion and charge 60 bucks for it and I'd be down for that. Just... anything that's more substantial than 'Hey guys, here's a free new zone that you'll never see in your life! Also more Power-creep!'.

@Kibeth41 You've already been told that the content is a fraction of Reaper of Souls. Why you are still pretending that the updates released add up to something even comparable to an expansion pack? It's literally not true. Just the lead up updates to Reaper of Souls are comparable in size to the thing you claim was a full xpac.

But I guess you can do your "hur dur, people are just ungrateful and stupid and don't realise what they have, but I'm smart I know otherwise" schtick.

Smilomaniac:On principle I won't buy it. Blizzard has focused too much on DLC and paid content for my taste, in the case of Overwatch in a really scummy and disrespectful way (not being able to use in-game funds for event skins and the random nature of the loot boxes).

Oh well.

Well they seemed to have learned from the summer games since you could buy the halloween costumes with credits.

Whoa there friend clam down. First off the term "A fraction" isn't really that helpful. 99/100th is "a Fraction". Personally, I disagree that the content added is 1/8th whats in RoS (see how I said I disagree and not, I'm right and your wrong). with the necromancer pack they will have added 4 new areas, 2 new bosses and a new character. Compare that to RoS's 5 new areas, 4 new bosses, and a new character. I feel that constitutes about 75% of how much content was in RoS.

Whoa there friend clam down. First off the term "A fraction" isn't really that helpful. 99/100th is "a Fraction". Personally, I disagree that the content added is 1/8th whats in RoS (see how I said I disagree and not, I'm right and your wrong). with the necromancer pack they will have added 4 new areas, 2 new bosses and a new character. Compare that to RoS's 5 new areas, 4 new bosses, and a new character. I feel that constitutes about 75% of how much content was in RoS.

Yeah, that is of course if you ignore the length and size the areas in RoS, along with the production values. Which are the reasons why the "free" content is not comparable in the first place. That is not even bringing up all the changes that came with RoS.

It's like people forgot, or never noticed, how huge RoS was because they didn't single out every single area, enemy, design change, new gameplay element and the effort and cost of creating a proper, narratively connected act with new music, cinematics, voice acting and story. 75%. Yeah, right.